AstronomyPicture of the Day—20181230

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2018 December 30

NGC1365: Majestic Island Universe

ImageCredit & Copyright: Martin Pugh

Explanation:Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000light-years across. Located a mere 60 million light-years away toward thechemical constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is a dominant member of thewell-studied Fornax galaxy cluster. This impressively sharp color image showsintense star forming regions at the ends of the bar and along the spiral arms,and details of dust lanes cutting across the galaxy's bright core. At the corelies a supermassive black hole. Astronomers think NGC 1365's prominent barplays a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution, drawing gas and dust into astar-forming maelstrom and ultimately feeding material into the central blackhole.